Comparatives and superlatives through picturesFiona Lawtie, Teacher and materials writer

A short but fun way to revise comparatives and superlatives is to give students a blank piece of paper and ask them to draw an easy to draw object, such as a star, a tree, a flower or a house on it.

Once students have finished drawing their pictures ask the students either as a class, or in small groups if the class is very large, to line up according to the size of the object that they drew.

The student with the biggest star stands on the right and the student with the smallest star stands on the left. Once the students are lined up according to the size of their picture you can then ask them questions such as;

Who has got the biggest star? Who has got the smallest star? Is student X's star bigger or smaller than student Y's star? etc.

Variations on the same activityIf you get the students to line up in small groups, you can then get them to re-group, with all the students with the smallest stars on one side of the classroom and all the students with the biggest stars on another side of the classroom and all the students with the second smallest stars on another side of the classroom etc.

If you ask students to draw a house you can ask them to draw a house with a front door, two windows, a roof, a chimney etc, and after students have lined up according to who has the biggest / smallest house, you can then get students to work in pairs and compare their pictures to see who has the biggest or smallest front doors etc.

With young learners you can get them to colour their stars and then pin them on the wall according to the size of the stars and then get students to write sentences on a piece of paper about their stars which they will pin on the wall under their picture.

My star is the biggest star. My start is bigger than John's star but smaller than Mary's star etc.

This creates a nice display for all the class to read.

I heard about this activity on the first teacher training course I attended and have used it repeatedly and have found that it is always popular with students and that the activity works well with young learners, teens and adults.

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Revising textsNeskovic Milos, Serbia

When it comes to revision, this is an activity I've found time-effective and motivating. After my students have worked on three texts in the textbook and done various comprehension and grammar exercises I use this activity to revise.

The activity goes like this:

First, I tell my students to read the first text we did for exactly 1 minute (I tell them not to read the whole text, just to scan the main points). When the time is up, I tell them to close the books, but they may open their copybooks.

On the board, I had already written 5 questions they should answer:o What is the story in the text about? o Who are the people in the story? o What do they do? o What can we learn from the text? o What are the new words or expressions?

e.g. I ask them to tell me 3 important verbs,3 adjectives,3 prepositions... I prompt their answers by writing this next to the questions:

o The story in the text is about... o The people in the story are...

o They... o We can learn that...

This is important because weaker students can easily get to grips with what I ask them to do, yet more advanced students put their efforts into making more complex sentences.

Second, for each question I call for 3 different answers from 3 different students. That way, each student tries to give a better answer, someone combines 2 previous answers, someone gives a whole new idea of the context.

I praise their comments, even if they are simple. And we all benefit from this quite lively and competitive spirit in the class.

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Revising defining relative clausesJackie McAvoy, Teacher, Materials writer, British Council Tunisia

These activities provide meaningful tasks for what can sometimes be a tricky grammar area. Students themselves can provide the essential, defining information. Using pictures is great for these kinds of tasks so try and build up a stock for a variety of activities.

A / B information gapProvide students with two sets of the same pictures of people, but set A has half the names of the people, and set B the other half. They have to ask each other questions to find their missing names.

A: What's the name of the boy wearing glasses?B: Is he also wearing a blue T shirt?A: Yes.B: That's Paul. What's the name of the girl who looks unhappy?A: Sally.

o Put the pictures in different positions for each set so that students don't simply ask Who is next to Sally? and thereby defeating the whole object of the task!

Identifying picture racePut a selection of pictures of people around the classroom. Ask students to run up or point to the one you describe:

T: Point to the man (who is) wearing a funny hat.

The first student to point correctly can then do the same for the others so it can be a more student-centred activity. Make sure they are using the more informal form (without 'who is') and so sounding more friendly and natural.

Who's this?For consolidation, a writing activity (done in pairs) could be describing a famous person without naming them:

1. This is somebody who lives in London.2. This is somebody that has got lots of money and who likes horses. 3. This is somebody with four children and lots of dogs….

The writing can then be passed to another pair who has to work out who the person is.

What's this?It's a good idea to encourage students to use defining relative clauses when talking about unknown vocabulary. Instead of; 'How do you say robinet in English?' students can ask; 'What is the name of the thing that you turn on for water?'

Also when students ask; 'What does vet mean?' reply by saying 'It's a job and it's somebody who is a doctor for animals.'

Exposing students to the grammar naturally and often will help them to overcome what can be a tricky grammatical area.

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How to measure advanced level students' progressNina M. Koptyug, Ph.D., associate professor of English Lyceum # 130, Novosibirsk, Russia

No matter what textbook(s) you may use, you will need some special tasks for a lesson which is dedicated to measuring the progress of your advanced level students. These tasks should be different from the ones used regularly, and they should also differ from the customary tests. First of all, instead of a separate grammar or reading test, you offer a test which combines various aspects of language learning. Moreover, you may set a rather condensed time limit: while any exam presupposes a lot of time allotted for every aspect, and may even be conducted on various days, you may suggest that your students do all the four types of tasks on one day, usually within two standard periods of 45-50 minutes each.

Reading SkillsTell your students that they are going to read a text from which several words have been removed. They should read the text and choose the necessary words from a list of 20. They should also change the form of the word where necessary. There are five words which they do not need to use. The score is 15 points.If you wish, you may use Worksheet 1.

Writing SkillsTell your students that they are going to read a letter and write their own reply to it. They should find the five 'hidden' questions which they must answer. Warn them that the total score for the letter is 25 points, five for the answers, and twenty for the letter. One point is lost if there is a mistake in spelling, grammar, etc. If you wish, you may use Worksheet 2.

Finally, work out a system of points awarded for every task, and explain it to your students, so that they will be able to add up the score and see which one is really the best.

Repeat the testing in mid-term, or at the end of the term, using different tasks.

Note: this type of testing can be easily arranged in a class where you have one or two advanced level students only. You may give them worksheets while the class is engaged in some other activity.

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Worksheet 1 - Reading

You are going to read a text about a town in Siberia, Russia. Several words have been removed from the text. Read the text, and choose the words from the list below. There are five words which you do not need to use. Use each word only once. Change the form of the word where necessary.

Akademgorodok was (1) ... in 1957. It is officially called the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science. This academic community is situated about thirty kilometers from the (2)... center, but it is considered to be part of Novosibirsk. It is well-planned, the architects even received (3) ... state award for their work. When you come into the town, first you see what's called the Builders District. It was decided that the very first blocks of (4) ... should be given to those who build the town, and it was a good (5)... Then you go on along several streets where most of the research institutes are (6)... At the beginning of Morskoy prospect, which is the (7)... street in town, you see the Presidium building. The people who live in Akademgorodok have a (8)... of imagination, and they loved building this new town. They gave all the streets and places unusual and colorful names. 'Morskoy' means 'Sea', the street goes all across town straight to the beach and (9)... Ob Sea, an artificial water reservoir. There are exotic names like The Golden Valley Street, which got its name (10)... autumn, or Pearly Street, which branches off Morskoy Prospect.Novosibirsk State University (11)... also located in Akademgorodok. There are several museums, an English-speaking school, the House of Scientists, where various meetings and conferences are held, and the Botanical Garden. When building this town, the architects counted (12)... single tree and tried to preserve as much of the natural environment (13)... possible. For example, the English school, (14)... occupies 1,500 square meters, was built on a clearing in the woods. Not a single tree was cut down, and all the trees that now stand around the school grounds are the original forest plants.Most visitors are charmed by the town's originality of design and (15)... unique natural environment.

Wordsfind, decide, city, at, the, flat, which, many, situation, that, a, its, in, their, every, main, as, lots, be, found

Key1 - founded; 2 - city; 3 - a; 4 - flats; 5 - decision; 6 - situated; 7 - main; 8 - lot; 9 - the; 10 - in; 11 - is; 12 - every; 13 - as; 14 - which; 15 - its

Words you do not need to use: find; many; their; that; at Top of page

Worksheet 2 - Writing

Read the following letter. Find the five hidden questions which require answers, in addition to several direct questions asked in the letter. Then write your own reply to this letter. The reply should not be longer than 200 words.

Dear Friend,We have finally obtained our visas, now is the time to plan! We'll book the tickets next week, and start packing. Since we're coming in winter, we'd appreciate your advice on some of the points. Do we take the warmest clothes and shoes? Is it necessary to bring our own skis, or can we rent them? How do we get to your place from the airport? We think that $100 is enough for two weeks. We are sure that there will be time to visit some places of interest, too. Please do not hesitate to tell us if you want us to bring something special for you and your family.Yours, ….

KeyThe five hidden questions suggested here are:1. Do we need any other documents, besides the visas?2. Are there any things we should not pack?3. Are ski shoes rented together with the skis?4. How much money does one need for two weeks?5. Are there any places of interest?

TipsIf your students come up with some other "hidden questions", let them.Be sure to tell them that the original letter contains 114 words, so that they should compose a letter which is about twice the length of this one.

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Games for question practice 2Clare Lavery, British Council

An essential skill in communicating and keeping up a conversation is the ability to ask questions. Students sometimes get lots of chances to answer questions but here is how you can get them to make some questions themselves! These activities can be used with a whole range of levels.

Guess the object Divide class into groups. Each group makes a list of three or four objects. Focus on words recently

studied, words for objects in the room or words for objects related to a topic e.g. home, studying, music etc.

One group must guess the objects of another group by asking questions e.g. 'Is it made of metal? Can you find one in this room? Is it bigger than this table?'

Set a limit to the number of questions possible for each object (e.g. six to eight questions). Give a point to the team if the object is not guessed/guessed within the number of questions allowed. Guide students by providing the lists of objects yourself or focussing on specific question types to suit

your classes.

Question time challengesThis approach can be used as a regular lesson slot or filler to change pace.

Give one question jumbled up on slips of paper. The first pair or group to unscramble it correctly are the winners.

A longer version

Take four or five question types recently covered by students. Jumble the words of the questions and write on one worksheet or on slips of paper in an envelope. Challenge small groups or pairs to re order. Run through the questions scoring two points for each correctly ordered question.

Then challenge students again to think of logical answers to the questions or to use a couple of the questions in a mini dialogue.

These activities originally appeared on the British Council Language Assistant internet site. Top of page

Games for question practice 1Clare Lavery, British Council

An essential skill in communicating and keeping up a conversation is the ability to ask questions. Students sometimes get lots of chances to answer questions but here is how you can get them to make some questions themselves! These activities can be used with a whole range of levels.

FAQs challenge Tell students that they are preparing information on a topic for a booklet or a website e.g. tourist information for their town, information about their school system, information about customs or music in their country. 1. Students in groups or pairs brainstorm a list of six to eight frequently asked questions on the subject. 2. The whole class pool their questions and discuss them. 3. Students prepare the answers in the next lesson. Quiz question challenge A quiz game based on recent vocabulary and topics covered can form the basis of this game with a twist. It has been played successfully with beginners! 1. Read aloud the answers from your quiz cards 2. In teams students must guess what the question is! Allow conferring between team members. Award two points for getting the question exactly right and one point for providing a question which makes sense and gets the answer, e.g. if the answer is '21', the questions could be 'How many students are there in this class? (two points) and 'How old is the assistant?' (one point)

These activities originally appeared on the British Council Language Assistant internet site. Top of page

Buy and sell - a revision activity for younger learnersAda Antipova, Protvino, Russia

This is a game that practises vocabulary and speaking skills in the context of buying and selling. It is a great revision activity for younger students. Basically, the students use vocabulary items, or standard sentences, as money. The teacher is a shopkeeper, the students are the customers. The students buy objects that they need to complete a drawing or plan. In order to buy the object they need , they have to produce the words which are the price of the item. For example, to buy a chair for a house, the student must answer correctly the question 'What time is it?', or, 'Can you count to ten?', or, 'Name three things you can find in a classroom.'

We often play it with my 10-12 years old pupils. It takes a lot of time to prepare for it, but it works very well.

My first lesson dealt with animals. Each student had a picture of the main body, without the limbs and and other body parts. I had drawings of paws, paws with claws, hooves, ears of different sizes and shapes, tails of different size, length and colour. All these items were cut out. I was the shop-assistant, the children were customers. The prices of the items varied - a long tail cost two words from their active vocabulary, an elephant's ear, let's say, cost a standard sentence, e.g. 'I'm sorry, I don't understand you.''Can you repeat it, please?'

When attending to a customer I asked a lot of questions: 'Would you like to buy this tail?' (showing on purpose the one the pupil didn't need), 'What colour?', 'Do you want a tail bigger than this one?'. So the number of questions that you can ask is just infinite. After buying an item the pupil had to glue it to the body on his card. Then coming back, he bought another item until the picture was complete.

So, you can sell the items necessary to build a house, to lay the table, clothes, vegetables to cook dinner, etc. If you don't want to waste your time on drawing, you just cut out pictures from anywhere. If a pupil does not know the necessary words -the cost of an item - he has to go and find and then come back.

In my groups (elementary) this activity works very well. They like it very much, even the queuing!

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Vocabulary revision gameEdevania, BrazilI have been teaching in Brazil for almost two years and I absolutely love what I do. Throughout these 19 months I have tried some activities with my groups, some were not very successful, but others worked out really well.

This is a revision activity.

Take the letters from the game of SCRABBLE, and use them for a new activity. You can divide the class into groups, or make it an individual quiz. Personally, I need to make it

individual as my classes are small. Then, give around 15 letters to each group or student Give each group eight minutes to try and make as many words as possible, but they also need to

explain to the class the meaning of each word he makes up, which can be by giving opposites or synonyms.

Every correct word can be worth one point, and every correct explanation can also be another point.

This activity has always helped my students to remember words that they have not used for a while, as well as allowing peer teaching.

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Fun revision quizMaria Jose Boga, Buenos Airies, Argentina

This activity is based on the format of most of the quiz shows currently shown on television. I have tried it with different ages and levels and it has proved to be a fun and challenging way of doing revision.

Prepare a set of questions on vocabulary areas, grammar points, verb patterns, etc. from recent lessons. The questions could go along the lines of:

"How do you spell "drought"? Does "assault" mean "rob"? What do you call the person who takes a plane by force? Is this sentence right? "I have a friend who he lives in L.A"? Is "famine" something good? How do you spell "famine"?

The teacher will play the role of the quiz show host, and the participants, that is the students, will sit in a semi-circle and answer one after the other as fast as possible. As the students answer, you will say "correct" or "incorrect" accordingly.

This activity allows for all sorts of variations as regards scoring, timing, frequency and items to be evaluated. You can either hold just one quiz session or have a quiz session every Monday over a couple of months. You can also have a thematic quiz!

The winner is the student with the highest number of correct answers. Once they have relaxed, and as a follow up, you can work on all those questions which caused difficulty.

The prize? Well, this is up to the teacher, or even the school. It can range from a bar of chocolate or a book ... to just a round of applause!

Remember the last class - revision at the beginning of a lesson

Keith Ricketts, teacher

This is a simple way to start the lesson with revision that uses the board.

I often start off a lesson with a class by simply saying at the beginning of the class 'What do you remember from the last English lesson?' Now, perhaps that lesson was one or two days ago, perhaps it was last week, it may have been even two weeks ago, it doesn't matter. So, individually they have to stop and try to recall any words or phrases at all that they may remember.

Usually, they say 'Oh Sir, I don't remember', and you can say, 'Well, look, just for a few minutes I'm going to ask you to try and remember and write something down. I want two words or phrases from everybody in the class, it doesn't matter what it is, even if it's something very, very simple.' And, if really necessary, remind them of the topic of the lesson.

It's amazing what in fact they can remember. Next ask a few people to come out and write on the blackboard what they can remember. When you have your blackboard full of words and phrases, stop the class and ask everybody to look at it and check if the spellings are right and to remember the meanings or to try to use in an example sentence.

The final stage of using the board means there is a sense of shared memory in the class and a clear focus for the activity.

Slap the board - a fun vocabulary revision activityPsyche Kennett, Director of an English Language Teacher Training Programme in Vietnam.

Slap the board is an energetic vocabulary activity - it can be used for revision, presentation and testing - which involves students running to and hitting the board.

You put the vocabulary items on the board in any order - sort of jumbled and sometimes a little bit higher than the tallest kid can reach, so that they'll have to jump.

Form groups. Give a mother tongue translation for one of the words on the board. The students have got to recognise the word which translates to that word. They then run to the board and slap the correct word. The first person in each group to slap the right word gets a point.

Alternatively, you can form teams and one person from the team runs to the board, as a representative. The first team to hit the correct word gets the point. The representative changes, ready for the next word….. This is a little calmer than if everyone is running to the board.

You can reverse the translation, by putting the mother tongue on the board. And of course, you could use definitions or opposites if you want to avoid using the mother tongue.

You can do it with pictures so you put the pictures on the board and call out the English word and the kids slap the picture.

The teacher doesn't have to call out the English, you can get other kids to call out so they're getting practice speaking too.

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